Chapter 3: The Awakening
I truly am sorry for it taking so long for me to post this chapter up. My internet has been out… anywho… This chapter was inspired by a scene from the first X-Men movie. Just a heads up so I don't get nagged at for an unoriginal scenario =P and P.S. Thank you for all of your reviews! I never thought people would actually like my writing and I'm glad to know I'm not the only Nightcrawler fanatic out there ;)
Prolog
There are two main types of pain. For instance, if you put your hand into a fire, the nerves in your hand would send messages through your central nervous system and into your brain. Your brain's job is to then send messages back to the injured area telling your body to keep itself from further harm. When your body self-consciously moves your hand away from the fire, it is using what is called reflexes to prevent any more damage than is already done. This is the first type of pain, the type where your mind can still take control and do what it must to lessen the pain.
The second kind of pain is much more intense. An example of this would be what the blue mutant named Kurt felt after he was stabbed through the stomach. His body and mind locked up. The pain was so shocking and intense that his brain was overloaded and could not do anything to prevent more injury from occurring. He did not even realize that he was being beaten after the initial attack. This type of pain is often caused by serious injury and followed by a fatality. Kurt was extremely lucky though.
Location Unknown
Awareness began to move throughout his body. Every inch of his flesh was sore and stiff. His eyes were open but he could not see clearly. His limbs would not yet follow his brain's instructions to move. As his eyes began to clear of all the blurriness, so did his mind.
'Vere am I?' He thought. After a few minutes of rest, he sat up to observe his surroundings. The first thing he noticed was that he was alone. The room he was in was small and strange. Other than the table he was on, the only thing in the room was some sort of monitor with moving lines and numbers on it. The lines on the screen would move sideways before quickly jerking up and then down. Every time it would do this, a sharp beeping noise rang in Kurt's ears. It took a moment for him to realize that the beeps matched his heart beats.
Kurt watched the screen until his body fully woke up, only then did he make his move for the door. After removing several small, corded stickers from his bare chest, which were attached to the machine, he stood up. As he approached the door, strange images filled his mind of a mob and a girl. It then occurred to the blue mutant that he had been stabbed and beaten. Cautiously, he examined himself.
His own clothes were missing. Instead, he was wearing a pair of dark sweat-shorts that someone had cut a hole into for his tail. His abdomen was wrapped in cloth that held gossamer over the spots where the sword had entered and exited his body. He ripped the cloth from around himself and checked the injury. Only a few marks from where someone had given him stitches were visible. Strangely, there was no pain when he moved around. Not thinking much of it, Kurt bolted out of the door.
Xavier's Office
Charles' P.O.V.
The soft music of my stereo filled my ears as I explained a few recent events to my good friend Moira MacTaggart over the telephone.
"Other than a few small missions, nothing very eventful has happened since Logan and I retrieved the injured mutant from Germany nearly three weeks ago. Jean and Storm have been watching over his wounds to make sure they do not become infected in any way. He seems to be healing rather quickly. There is still something that is very unsettling to me. Both Jean and I have tried to make mental contact with the mutant, but he seems to be blocking us in some way. It is almost as if his natural mental barriers have been trained to hold off the probing of telepaths." There was a brief pause before Moira spoke.
"That is unsettling Charles. Do you think he could be a telepath?" Her concern was hidden but still made apparent by the subtle fluctuations in her voice.
"That is also a problem. We know near to nothing about who this mutant is or what he can do. He is covered in blue fur, has a tail and his x-rays show that the ligaments in his body are potentially as flexible as a cats. Other than that, our guy is a complete myst… Aghhh!" Do to my telepathic alarm system, I suddenly became aware of another mind in the institute, one that didn't belong to any of my students. Focusing in on the consciousness of the person, I tried to distinguish their location. The moment my mind touched the theirs, I was met with a familiar mental blockade.
"I'm going to have to call you back Moira. It appears that our guest has woken and is attempting to make a break for it." Without a second thought, I hung the phone up and opened a mental bridge with all of my X-Men at once.
'X-Men, I want everyone on full alert! The mutant we picked up from Germany is awake and at large in the institute. If you happen to make contact with him, please be cautious, we still do not know how dangerous he can be. And whatever you do, avoid any type of aggression with him. Above all else be careful and remember your training. Let's hope he is reasonable with us.'
Location Unknown
Hallway after hallway the blue mutant ran. He had started out cautious but after feeling the telepath's mind trying to probe his, Kurt became more desperate to escape. In his entire life, he had never been in such a building as this. After going up a flight of stairs and leaving the plain grey rooms of the basement behind, the halls became long and extravagantly beautiful. Every single door was large and finely detailed. The floors were polished and shining and the ceiling was at least twelve feet high. Whoever owned this place had to be filthy rich.
Hearing voices coming from up ahead, Kurt quickly climbed up the wall and slipped into a shadow on the ceiling. As long as he doesn't make a sound or move, he will be almost invisible do to his dark fur.
Two figures hurried down the hallway as they talked amongst themselves. One was a man who was wearing these strange sunglasses that only had one long lens of red. He had a very serious expression on his face and his jaw was set tightly. The hidden mutant made a mental note of not to mess with him.
The man's companion was very different from him. It was a teenage girl with long flowing brown hair. Kurt's breath caught in his throat when he first saw her.
'Sie ist schön. (She is beautiful.)' The young man thought to himself. He slowed his breathing as they neared him in order to stay completely silent.
"I already told you Scott, I can take care of myself. You don't need to baby sit me just because I'm the youngest X-Man." The girl said with a look of annoyance on her flawless face.
"And I already told you that I'm not letting you out of my sight. It's part of my job as leader to insure everyone stays safe. Besides, Ororo would kill me if something happened to you Kitty." He glanced over at her quickly before continuing down the hallway. Both of them stopped suddenly right under where the blue mutant was clinging to the ceiling. Kurt held his breath.
A new sound filled Kurt's pointed ears. It was quick and sounded like someone sharpening knives together. Curiously, the mutant slowly turned his head toward the sound and was startled by what he saw. A large, scruffy man with claws was standing but five feet away. Not only did Kurt not hear him approach, but the man looked strangely familiar.
"Logan, I thought you were going to check on Rouge." The man named Scott stated. Logan just grunted and sniffed the air like some sort of predator looking for his prey.
"Cyclops, get tha half-pint out ah here. We ain't alone." Kurt's heart rate skyrocketed.
'He can't possibly know I am here, can he?' Kurt thought. After another sniff, the man snapped his head up and looked right at were Kurt was hiding. 'I guess he does know. Time to leave.'
And with that last thought, the blue mutant kicked off of the ceiling with enough force to send him over the beautiful girl's head. He somersaulted through the air and landed on all fours just in time to see the shocked look on all of their faces. With a mischievous grin aimed at the young woman, Kurt turned around and took off down the hallway with incredible speed.
It took the X-Men only a moment to start in the pursuit of the mutant on the run. That moment, however, was long enough for Kurt to gain a lead on them. With Kurt running on all fours like a cat and turning down random hallways every few seconds, it wasn't long before Kitty, Scott, and Logan had lost track of him.
Kurt kept running for all he was worth. He became almost hysterical with anxiety. Every time he would turn down a new hallway, it would look exactly identical to the last. There was no way out, it seemed. Finally, a change in the pattern caught Kurt's glowing yellow eyes. Two large wooden doors looked different from the rest.
With great desperation, Kurt flung one of the doors open and quickly ducked inside. He was so caught up in making sure he wasn't followed that he didn't notice the four figures in the room until one of them spoke.
"Young man, I'm not sure if you know this or not, but, in this country, it is considered rude when you simply barge into someone's office like that." Kurt jumped in surprise and shot around to face the man from which the voice was coming. The man was bald and sitting in a wheelchair. Behind him stood three people: an elegant and tall African looking woman, a girl that was about Kurt's age who had a white streak in the front of her hair, and a very large and muscular man with a military haircut.
Kurt discreetly scanned the room for anything that could be taken to his advantage. A glimmer of hope flashed in his eyes. To the left side of him were two beautiful Scimitar swords hanging on the wall as decoration. Noting their exact location in his mind, he took a step back toward the door.
"Please, don't be alarmed. We are not going to harm you. My name is Professor Charles Xavier. This building we are in is my home. I am a mutant, just like you, as are all my students, the X-Men. You see, I run a school here for mutants where I help them to control their powers and learn how to use those gifts for good. What is your name, son?" Kurt hesitated.
"…Mein name… is Nightcrawler… Vhat do you people vant with me?" Kurt asked as he ever so slightly crouched down to better his balance. The African woman spoke next.
"We are here to help you Nightcrawler. That is why we saved you from the mob that was trying to kill you. You will be safe here from people who don't understand about mutants, that is, if you want to stay." She smiled at Kurt as she said this.
"You vould let me stay here, yet you know nothing about me? How do you know you can trust me?"
"Simply," Charles said. "I don't know if I can trust you. But I am willing to give you the chance to prove that you are trustworthy. So what do you say Nightcrawler? Would you like to stay here and be an X-Man?"
=D !CLIFFHANGER! =D
Thanks for reading this chapter! Now… Back to business...What decision will Kurt make? Will he try and make a break for it? Or join the X-Men? Why didn't Kurt tell Xavier his real name? Whatever happened to Kitty, Scott, Logan, and Azazel? Why am I asking questions that I already know the answer to? Oh ya… because I want to hear everyone's opinions. In other words… Please keep reviewing so I know if I'm doing things right or wrong =D